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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28252194">An Accidental Discovery</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueboxesandtrafficcones/pseuds/blueboxesandtrafficcones'>blueboxesandtrafficcones</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>31 Days of Ficmas 2020 [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Doctor Who (2005)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Christmas Season, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Pete's World (Doctor Who), Self-Doubt, Self-Reflection, accidental discovery, engagement ring - Freeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 01:34:57</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,013</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28252194</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueboxesandtrafficcones/pseuds/blueboxesandtrafficcones</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>While putting laundry away, Rose makes a discovering in TenToo’s sock drawer that sends her into a tailspin.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jackie Tyler &amp; Rose Tyler, Metacrisis Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>31 Days of Ficmas 2020 [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2037040</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>63</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>31 Days of Ficmas 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>An Accidental Discovery</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">


        <li>
            Inspired by

            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/17735192">Barcelona is for Lovers</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueboxesandtrafficcones/pseuds/blueboxesandtrafficcones">blueboxesandtrafficcones</a>.
        </li>

    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Day 15 of 2020′s 31 Days of Ficmas</p>
<p>Prompt: Ring</p>
<p>A mini-sequel to Barcelona is for Lovers (in my mind), but not explicitly so.  Can easily be read independently of that fic.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>If Rose had to pick one single thing she missed most about the TARDIS (besides the travel), it would probably be the laundry facilities.  Specifically, the fact that clothes dropped in a hamper at night would, typically, be back in her closet clean and pressed by the time she woke up the next morning.  The only exceptions would be the week or so before they had a visit planned to visit her Mum, as Jackie always made a big fuss over doing it for her, and Rose indulged her.  On the occasions when items were truly filthy, if she’d fallen headfirst into a mud pit or was sprayed by exploding alien (neither of which had happened with any frequency, but more than once was excessive by her definition) she would feel guilty letting the timeship deal with it, preferring to take it directly to the laundry room that would magically appear as an offshoot of her room.</p>
<p>(In the beginning, she’d just accepted the ship’s abilities, and after Bad Wolf, refused to give any thought as to why the TARDIS would be so much more accommodating to her than to the Doctor’s previous companions.)</p>
<p>She’d had to adjust to normal laundry facilities upon getting stuck here in Pete’s World, as they still called it, and had willingly accepted that the price she’d pay for a domestic life with the Doctor, or as domestic as either could stand, was doing all of the household’s laundry.  <em>Why</em> that was his Rubicon she didn’t know, but if that was what it took, so be it.  Besides, better to keep him away from the appliances, as his “improvements” tended to make things unusable, at least for their intended purpose.</p>
<p>Didn’t make her tolerate it any better.</p>
<p>Humming along to the radio, she emptied the basket of clothes on the bed, folding socks and underthings, grooving to the music.  An armful’s worth of socks were the Doctor’s, all in funny or eyewatering patterns, and when she pulled open the drawer groaned at the chaos that greeted her.  Dumping her load on top of the dresser while she organized what was already in there, she sang along to the new song, a jaunty tale by an artist who’d come to fame after she’d started travelling.</p>
<p>“<em>I like shiny things, but I’d marry you with paper- </em>what the fuck?”  Hand closing around a pair of dark dress socks she’d never seen him wear, she was startled to find them firmer than expected, as if something were hidden inside.  “This better not be that mobile he lost…”  Pulling the pair out, she unfolded them- and gasped, as a small box dropped onto the socks piled below.</p>
<p>Her heart knew what it was even as her brain scrambled to catch up, and it was a trembling hand that reached for it.  Picking it up, she held it close to her heart, trying to breath and <em>think, damn it.</em>  They’d never talked about marriage, other than a few vague jokes, but she didn’t expect that of him, wouldn’t ask for more than what he was capable of.  She knew who he was, and what he was, TARDIS-less or not.  <em>It could be earrings</em>, she tried to convince herself.  <em>Christmas is next week, don’t get ahead of yourself.</em>  <em>Maybe a necklace?</em></p>
<p><em>Could just open it and see,</em> she considered.  <em>Or ask him about it.  Or just wait until Christmas.</em></p>
<p>Taking a deep breath, certain she couldn’t live not knowing, she cracked the box open – and immediately shut it without seeing, re-folding it into the socks before she could change her mind again.  Everything went into the drawer haphazardly, reorganization abandoned with the urge to run, to leave, but not wanting to do so with clothes everywhere; no need to worry the Doctor should he come home and find the laundry half-abandoned and her nowhere to be found.</p>
<p>Because she suddenly had somewhere to be, <em>urgently</em>.</p><hr/>
<p>Rose burst into the kitchen with more momentum than intended, throwing the door open and startling her mother enough to make her yelp, tea sloshing over the edge of the fancy teacup she held as she chatted on the phone.</p>
<p>“Rose!”</p>
<p>She just stared, eyes wide, and Jackie’s motherly intuition must have dinged, as she muttered into the mobile, “I’ll call you back,” and hung up.  “What’s wrong?”</p>
<p>In a daze Rose came towards where she was seated at the island, pulling herself up onto a stool next to her and leaning over to rest her head on her mother’s shoulder; it wasn’t exactly comfortable, but the warm arm Jackie wrapped around her was exactly what she needed.</p>
<p>“Sweetheart, you’re scaring me,” Jackie murmured after a minute’s silence.  “This isn’t like you- not anymore.  Did something happen?”</p>
<p>“I…”  After running on autopilot for a good forty-five minutes now, Rose’s brain was finally coming back online, and she was starting to question the wisdom of running to her mother.  It had been instinct, but in hindsight, she knew how Jackie felt about the Doctor, and wasn’t sure she would be happy about this potential development.  “I…”</p>
<p>Jackie nudged her upright, waiting until she was straight to stand and fetch another teacup.  “Take your time.”</p>
<p>Rose waited, watching as she poured her a cup, fixing it up just to Rose’s taste, if a little sweet, wrestling with herself, deciding that she wouldn’t tell her, or risk betraying the Doctor’s confidence, such as it was, until Jackie sat back down and she blurted, “I found a ring.”</p>
<p>“What, on the ground?”</p>
<p>“Mum!”  She rolled her eyes, groaning.  “<em>No</em>, in the Doctor’s sock drawer!”</p>
<p>Jackie was quiet for a moment.  “Least it wasn’t wrapped in a pair of his pants,” she shrugged.  “Was it in a box, or loose?”</p>
<p>Rose stared blankly at her.  “You’re awfully casual.  I tell you the Doctor, my nine-hundred something <em>alien</em> boyfriend, seems to have a <em>ring</em>, and you’re talking about his <em>pants</em>?”</p>
<p>“And you seem awfully bothered,” she countered, sipping at her tea.  “Rose, he literally moved universes for you- and don’t start on that <em>the other Doctor wouldn’t have let him stay</em> malarky; he’s here for you.  To <em>be</em> with you.  Why wouldn’t he want to make it official?”</p>
<p>“Because!  Because he scoffs at marriage, and domestics, and <em>commitment</em>.  Some days, he can’t commit to a pair of bloody socks!”</p>
<p>Jackie snickered, quickly restraining herself at Rose’s glare.  “Sweetheart, he loves you.  He wants to spend the rest of his life with you – I heard it as well as you did, on that beach.  Don’t let his fashion choices be the judge of what he wants with you.  He <em>chose</em> you.  And you him.”</p>
<p>Her heart stopped.  “Oh, God, you don’t think he’s planning on proposing because I- I-”</p>
<p>“Sort of rejected him for the other Doctor?” Jackie asked helpfully.  “No, love.  He’s just thinking about the future- <em>his</em> future- and spending it with you.  I think you <em>both</em> could use a bit of solid evidence that you’re both in it for the long haul, because you <em>want</em> to be.  That neither of you- and more specifically, the other- isn’t settling.”</p>
<p>Rose stared down into her cuppa, thoughts swirling, before one floated to the top.  “Hang on, did you <em>know</em> about this?”  It was the only possibility that made sense; her casual attitude, her confidence in the Doctor’s meaning behind it.</p>
<p>She had to giver her mother credit; she was a good liar.  But the calm and even “No” gave her away.  Quite literally in no universe would Jackie be so accepting the first time she heard about this.  Not possible.</p>
<p>“You <em>did</em>!” Rose gasped.  “And you didn’t <em>tell</em> me?  How do you know?”</p>
<p>Jackie grimaced.  “I shouldn’t say.  He asked my permission?”</p>
<p>“He did?”  Rose tried to picture it in her mind: the Doctor’s nerves as he asked, her mother’s likely over-the-top reaction.  “When?”  She tried to remember his schedule the last few weeks, but he’d been with her most of the time he wasn’t in his lab at Torchwood, and they hadn’t seen her parents except for the night they dropped Tony off for Rose and the Doctor to babysit while they attended an event.  “Why?”</p>
<p>“You’ll have to ask him.”</p>
<p>“Oh, come on!”</p><hr/>
<p>Despite her best whining and pleading, she couldn’t get any more information out of her mother, eventually slinking home with more questions than answers.</p>
<p>When she walked into the house they shared, it was to find the Doctor in the kitchen, minding something on the stove as he sang along to Elvis, using a whisk as a microphone, complete with pelvic thrusts.  Leaning against the doorframe, she just watched him goof around, her anxiety melting as love and happiness filled her.  She loved this man with everything she was, had moved heaven and earth (and time and space) to find him.  The future was bright with him at her side, whether they were traveling the universe or reporting to Torchwood every day.</p>
<p>The shock had mostly faded on the drive home, and as she examined her reaction, she was ashamed and annoyed to realize it stemmed, ultimately, from self-doubt.  That the same voice that had once warned her she’d never do better than Jimmy or Mickey, that had made her turn the Doctor down the first time he asked her to travel with him, was whispering in her ear that she wasn’t enough, couldn’t keep him happy, that he’d eventually grow tired of her.</p>
<p><em>That’s not true</em>, she thought fiercely.  <em>He chooses me, every day.</em>  And he did; every day that he came home to their little cottage with her, babbling happily about his day.  Every night when he proved his love to her, first with words, then their bodies.  Every time he’d come back from the shops with something not on the list, casually noting <em>We were running low, figured I might as well buy it now rather than two days from now.</em></p>
<p>He’d come a long way from the bitter Northerner who complained every time they had to stop on Earth for milk, who in their early days traveling together refused to purchase more than a gallon at a time, remarking that odds were she wouldn’t still be with him long enough to use it, despite having the same argument week after week.</p>
<p>And even then he’d loved her, she knew now, could see it with the benefit of hindsight.  All the little ways his hearts bled through jumpers and leather jackets.  <em>I’m so glad I met you.  </em>Or <em>I could save the world but lose you.</em></p>
<p>“Oi, Earth to Rose.”  Fingers snapping in her face pulled her out of her daze, and she blinked, looking into the Doctor’s brown eyes, warm and wide with concern.  “All right, love?  Something wrong?”</p>
<p>She smiled widely, tears pricking at her eyes.  “I love you.”  Fisting his tie she pulled him down to her, kissing him like it was their last kiss – but it wasn’t, it was the <em>first</em>, the first of their marriage, even if he hadn’t asked and she hadn’t answered.  “I love you so much.”</p>
<p>“I love you too,” he mumbled against her mouth.  His tone was confused, but he seemed content in his bewilderment, not questioning it further as their lips met again and again, reveling in the luxury of being together.</p>
<p>Rose thought about telling him, about confessing to her inadvertent snooping, or at least saying something to reassure him that her answer would yes, a thousand times yes, but her heart was too full, and the words wouldn’t come.</p>
<p>Instead, she asked if whatever was on the stove would keep – and when he said it would, turned off the burner and led him by the hand to their bedroom, pushing him onto the bed and enjoying his delighted befuddlement.</p>
<p>“How long are you going to stay with me?” she asked, settling astride his waist.</p>
<p>It took him a moment to recognize the question, his expression softening to daft love.  “Forever,” he vowed, just as she had done so many years before.</p>
<p>“Good.”</p>
<p>And it was.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you for reading!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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